NAVAL DISARMAMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 180, 2 August 1932, Page 10

NAVAL DISARMAMENT

PACIFIC THE CRUX. REVIEW OF THE POSITION. LONDON, July 12. Freed of the reparations wrangle between France and Germany, Europe is turning with renewed hope to positive measures of economic rehabilitation, and in particular to the settlement of the disarmament problem. Reduction of expenditure upon armaments, together with the reparations settlement, will, it is hoped, constitute Europe's best claim to relief from the burden of debt to the United States. The eyes of the world are now turning to the Pacific, which is regarded as the crux of the capital ship problem. Japan is willing sympathetically to consider almost any proposals, subject to an assurance of the retention of the Washington ratio of 3 to 5 to America. Britain believes that this is feasible, even if it means reducing capital ships from a maximum of 35,000 tons to 25,000 tons, and guns from 16in. to 12in. Moreover, such reductions would in no way weaken America’s position in the Pacific. She demands big capital ships owing to the absence of bases, but Britain considers it now practicable to construct 25,000-ton capital ships with the same cruising radius as 35,000-ton vessels, ultimately effecting economies equal to the reduction in the number of bigger ships, as Mr. Hoover desires. British experts believe that the chief capital ship economies will be achieved by reducing gun calibre and the size of crews. It is admitted that the Hoover proposals aim at instant economies, but the British think that long-range economies will eventually be commensurrate with Mr. Hoover’s short-range plan.